I will challenge your notion of the USP.
For the ATC at least, the stated aims in the Royal Warrant are:
It’s to encourage a practical interest in aviation and the Royal Air Force, not to encourage a practical interest in Royal Air Force aviation. If you think we should be focusing solely on the military aspect may I suggest you write to His Majesty and ask him to alter the Warrant (and maybe give my former colleagues their military commissions back)
One of the reasons I loved being an Air Cadet (before we became the Grounded Cadets) was that it gave me the opportunity to do something I otherwise would never have been able to do; fly.
I grew up on a council estate to a father displaced by the Northern Ireland conflict and a pad brat mother. We never had any money growing up, I even had to share a room with my sister until I was 7 and the council finally upgraded us to a 3 bedroom house.
“Just go do it” reeks of elitism and is a black mark against you personally. It demonstrates a distinct lack of understanding of who our cadets are and how much the ATC in particular, being the community-based part of RAFAC, can help young people achieve goals that are otherwise out of reach.
Frankly, my view of you has declined significantly from what you have just said and I have lost all remaining confidence that you know anything worthwhile about the Cadet Forces. Stand down.
So a quick win on this - could we try & restore cadets having opportunity experience flights during the kings birthday fly past?
It’s a unique military flying experience which gives cadets that RAF link even if it isn’t a full AEF or AEG.
However it seems to be last minute so could this be factored into the planning stage now so come May/jube everything is in place?
I have reached out to colleagues to ask about AEF activity with the AM Force. Standby…
Do not accuse me of being elitist please. Do some research and you might find the black mark is unwarranted.
I am simply reflecting the tone in here where multiple contributors have cited the seemingly simplicity of civ flying inc the relative (low) costs. You cannot have it both ways; civ is either cheap and accessible or it’s not.
But, no, I am not of a ‘let them eat cake’ background.
We seem to saying that our USP is Flying. I disagree. I believe that our Unique Selling Provision in comparison to other Military Youth Organisations is that we give our members the opportunity for stick time at a ridiculously low cost (a recent local discussion indicated that 1 squadron has subs at £6 per month, which is £72 a year, my last unit was £20, £240 a year, and parents still claimed it was too cheap.
As I highlighted in another thread the concept that there is no flying is simply not true
As I’ve said for the last few years of induction nights, by being a cadet you give yourself the opportunity to fly, not a guarantee that you will fly. How many units have been offered zero flying opportunities this year? It’s up to the cadet/parent to sign up to the opportunity and accept that not everyone who wants something gets it!
This can be done in ways other than being in the air holding the control column, in fact the classification syllabus covers this aim off very successfully.
I think you’ve just lost most of your audience on here.
Separately, I have just had a detailed reply from the CEO of the Air League, including a copy of SLA & MoU for scholarships. I shall be following up with her.
I don’t see anything that is insurmountable - or resource intensive - to stop RAFAC utilising this wealth of experience as a way to get cadets airborne in civilian aircraft (or “non-Service” aircraft as RAFAC calls them).
Only a sith deals in absolutes
(Seriously, though, affordability and accessibility is subjective, we should be aiming for equity)
Respectfully, this is not an accurate representation of what you have seen.
The RAFAC would save money by utilising civilian services to boost flying opportunity.
Your comments relate to only permitting flying to those who can afford to pay for flying period.
Not to drive the point home too sharply, but poor people can’t be prioritising flying lessons. The ATC provided amazing opportunities for people who can’t afford flying lessons.
Look at the situation at Leuchars, covers the majority of Scotland but can’t fly weekends due to lack of ATC. How easy would that problem be to fix? We have to fly during School holidays when most CFAV’s are working.
Yep - & when ACTO35 was around, our cadets / CFAVs didn’t mind fund raising so that cadets across our Sqn (“rich” or “poor”) could have the opportunity to go flying - this was of course during the “pause” (don’t me started on that fiasco).
Now, we are forbidden to organise flying in non-Service aircraft - where clearly, safety standards in ATOs & BGA are laid down (& enforced / audited). We don’t have the option to support any cadets now, let alone the poorer ones (who have never flown in a commercial aircrfat as their parents can’t afford it, let alone a private aircraft / glider).
I got 2FTS to incorporate gliding in ACTO35- this hadn’t been considered initially; we were one of the first sqn (if not the first) to go gliding under ACTO35. Our local gliding centre (Cambridge Gliding Club) was very flexible for a bulk package on the day. Everyone a winner.
Oh, 2FTS hadn’t even looked at doing an in-house scheme for those cadets who were going to age out from their ACPS award - it was my suggestion to ofer a Silver Gliding Scholarship & eventually it was taken up. It shouldn’t be up to a lowly CFAV to make a major policy change (twice)
Get the RAFAC lawyers to draw up a disclaimer letter for parents / guardians to sign:
"Dear whoever,
This is to advise that any flying / gliding opportunities organised (& / or financed) by your local squadron are purely private arrangements that are not endorsed by those in the Ivory Towers. Any liability is solely on the flying / gliding organisation, & you should check this & their associated insurances before your little Johnie or Josephine takes part in such flying activities.
Love & kisses,
HQ RAFAC"
The Air Cadets is for AVIATION - not just RAF aviation.
And at Wittering. Hey, you have XX slots for a week day. Ah, most CFAVs are working, who is going to drive them? Never mind that schools often won’t let cadets off for the day. There is a shortage of QFIs too (RAF-wide I think).
It’s a dysfunctional system.
Having spent years in youth work, I’ve been fortunate enough to work with young people from the full spectrum of economic backgrounds.
The course that I was responsible for delivering was largely funded, and required just a contribution of £50 from the participants (which we reduced to £10 for those eligible for Free School Meals, as we could claim additional funding for those people) for a 3-4 week course.
In some schools with whom I worked, there were families for whom the £10 was genuinely unaffordable and for whom we had to provide additional support to enable them to partake with their peers. This was particularly true for young people with EHCPs, or the children of some first generation migrants.
I would love to hear how @Cab believes those individuals can “just go do it” when even just a taster session at my local airfield in the UK costs at least £120 for a 30 minute flight - 12 times more than the discounted rate we offered our participants, that some still could not afford. I am beyond flabbergasted at such a substandard response from someone who is allegedly a leader, and genuinely quite angry at having had to read that this is how our senior leaders think. It just goes to show just how detached from the reality of the young people and hard working families that we work with these senior bods are.
I’m sure it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that what is affordable for an air cadet squadron with a Civilian Committee and all of its fundraising potential is not affordable to every cadets parents.
Cheap and accessible for Squadrons yes, cheap and accessible for individual cadets not so much.
On that jolly note, I’m off to fly a plane. On second thoughts I might stick the heating on instead…
Wow…
I have seen several cadets over the decades as a CFAV use cadet flying as a leg up to get a foothold into employment in flying as an stick-instrument interface. Something which their families would not have been able to afford on their own. I find your statement to be utterly tone deaf, and frankly is quite unbecoming.
But if we civilianised flying - isn’t this what we would be paying if not more?
As a comparison - what do the air scouts pay & get flying gliding wise?
You don’t have to stay in the organisation if you don’t feel like it works for you. All volunteering comes to an end at some point - it’s knowing when it’s reached it’s natural point to part waves.
The ability for a CWC to get a ‘bulk buy’ price would likely reduce costs.
If HQAC did that bartering at a ynational level, say with the BGA, those cost would be loads less.
We used to pay a lot less than that for gliding but maybe we were just lucky.
